Distillery Notes: "Germain-Robin is the only producer in the world to base its distilling material on 100% world-class wine grapes. The Select Barrel XO is 80% Pinot Noir. No French producer distills grapes of this quality.

Ten barrels a year of XO alambic brandy, hand-distilled on our antique cognac still from twelve different premium wine-grape sources, cellared in Limousin oak. The wine used for distillation is of unusual quality: premium varietals, notably Pinot Noir. Using such high-quality wine gives the XO a distinctively soft richness of flavor and a wonderfully long and complex finish.

Simply the finest XO that exists — smoother, more balanced, more complex than XO cognacs, with a subtle and distinctive Californian fragrance & flavor of deep, rich fruit. This is the brandy we set out to make when we founded Germain-Robin. The high proportion of brandies distilled from Pinot Noir lends elegance, fullness, and a smooth, lingering finish. There is none of the over-oaked deadness on your palate, none of thealcoholic roughness in your throat, that detract from aged European spirits. No other grape spirit is made this way."